upgrade for new games

[triXsta]

well i play cs competively and having 100 fps in this game is very important since lower fps will affect your shooting.with cs:source coming out i think i might need an upgrade if i want the same performance.

my specs are
amd athlon xp 3000+
radeon 9600xt
512 mb dual chann ram
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i am not amazing with computers but i know stuff about them,i was wondering if having a gig of ram will help at all even if u arent using over 512 mb of ram?im saying if i only use 400 mb of ram will having a gig of ram still be faster than 512?also i dont think my vid card is good enough for source.i was thinking of getting a x800 xt plat edition for my next upgrade.

i was playing source beta at my lan center and the specs of the pcs there are 5600s 256 mb vid cars,athlon xp 2800s+,and 512 dual channel ram and i was running beta with lowest in game settings and 800x600 resolution and only getting an average of maybe 40 fps!!!!!!this is why i think i need to upgrade my video card or maybe ram

 

[jolancer]

sorry i dont have any answers for u, but was wondering.. wat is counter strike Source? i know wat counter strike is, but never played it.

wat is source, and why does it take up so much resources? is it just a blowded mod?

 

[GameGURU]

well trix i think that setup will do fine, but if you really want to have a good comp then go the way you are thinking (x800) or a 6800. They will serve you up some good gaming.

 

[triXsta]

source is the counterstrike for hl2...much better graphics and new models,maps,etc and better physics

 

[The Merlin]

Well, A X800 XT PE, will probably be all you need for CS:S to have awesome FPS, but adding another 512mb of RAM wouldn't hurt

What kind of RAM do you have now?

 

[triXsta]

its corsair pc3200 dual channel 512 mb ram

 

[The Merlin]

its corsair pc3200 dual channel 512 mb ram

So its 2x 256mb? If its one stick you could just buy another one exactly like it, which would save you some money, but if its 2x 256mb. you'll probably have to buy a new 2x 512mb pack, which run around $200, depending on which you choose

 

[GameGURU]

if it is 2x 256, then upgrade, if it is 2x 512 then leave it

 

[triXsta]

it is 2 256s

 

[GameGURU]

put it at 2 512's and then it should show some improvement